What an Excellent Collection Public Spaces | City Builders Ep.41

Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize how distinctive our downtown plan is in Detroit.

You know, having studied cities all over the country, and in North America, I, I should say, most urban plans, the downtown grid, the city overall, are pretty straightforward for the most part.

I mean, very different than European, right?

Right.

For the most part, the North American city grid is a, a very distinctive grid, square blocks, rectiline- rectilinear bl- blocks, what have you.

And then there are a few cities like Boston and, and, uh, uh, to some degree, the southern tip of New York City and Manhattan, and a number of other cities that are a little bit more European in nature, because-

DC.

Yeah, DC, yeah, because of the L'Enfant Plan, and that was done with the inspiration of European cities and, and the Baroque planning with axial relationships and such.

But Detroit is one of those cities.

Yeah

... that actually has a very, very distinctive, unique, and varied urban plan, which of course leads to unique buildings, you know, flat iron buildings, funky, weird building e- you know, forms and plans, and then of course, uh, what we have in Detroit is some of these odd blocks become public spaces.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

The, the, [clears throat] the key thing about Detroit is that when you look at the network, there's sort of this radial and, and almost like a web in the, in the formation of the downtown street system, and it creates for very interesting linkages between the different public spaces.

It's almost, it's, it's somewhat like a necklace or a series of necklaces within the-

Yeah

... within the downtown core when, you know, going from, say, Harmony Park on one side to Capitol Park and Times Square on the other, and then going down to the riverfront.

There are a number of different public spaces that end up taking on i- in many of the areas, because of the triangular nature or the radial nature of the street grid, they have these distinct triangular forms that are characteristic of Detroit's downtown core in general.

You bring up the necklace.

Uh, I think, it, you know, we, we recall back to the late 1990s when we were doing the greater downtown master plan for the city, and the city hired our friends, uh, Michel Truchtmann, uh, and Ken Greenberg from Urban Strategies out of Toronto to actually lead the master plan for downtown and the greater downtown, which is beyond the downtown, but also midtown, New Center, and a little bit, little bit of the waterfront.

And the identification of exactly what you said, that area in the center which has these radial streets, it's like a web, was something that inspired, I, I remember their thinking, and [laughs] I remember Michel drawing a very interesting sketch, if you recall.

Yes, I remember that.

A, a woman's, uh, I think a woman's face with, you know, sort of the upper torso, and then, and then a necklace around her-

Right

... around her neck that was in the shape of the plan.

Yeah, I think a lot of people don't realize how distinctive our downtown plan is in Detroit.

You know, having studied cities all over the country, and in North America, I, I should say, most urban plans, the downtown grid, the city overall, are pretty straightforward for the most part.

I mean, very different than European, right?

Right.

For the most part, the North American city grid is a, a very distinctive grid, square blocks, rectiline- rectilinear bl- blocks, what have you.

And then there are a few cities like Boston and, and, uh, uh, to some degree, the southern tip of New York City and Manhattan, and a number of other cities that are a little bit more European in nature, because-

DC.

Yeah, DC, yeah, because of the L'Enfant Plan, and that was done with the inspiration of European cities and, and the Baroque planning with axial relationships and such.

But Detroit is one of those cities.

Yeah

... that actually has a very, very distinctive, unique, and varied urban plan, which of course leads to unique buildings, you know, flat iron buildings, funky, weird building e- you know, forms and plans, and then of course, uh, what we have in Detroit is some of these odd blocks become public spaces.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

The, the, [clears throat] the key thing about Detroit is that when you look at the network, there's sort of this radial and, and almost like a web in the, in the formation of the downtown street system, and it creates for very interesting linkages between the different public spaces.

It's almost, it's, it's somewhat like a necklace or a series of necklaces within the-

Yeah

... within the downtown core when, you know, going from, say, Harmony Park on one side to Capitol Park and Times Square on the other, and then going down to the riverfront.

There are a number of different public spaces that end up taking on i- in many of the areas, because of the triangular nature or the radial nature of the street grid, they have these distinct triangular forms that are characteristic of Detroit's downtown core in general.

You bring up the necklace.

Uh, I think, it, you know, we, we recall back to the late 1990s when we were doing the greater downtown master plan for the city, and the city hired our friends, uh, Michel Truchtmann, uh, and Ken Greenberg from Urban Strategies out of Toronto to actually lead the master plan for downtown and the greater downtown, which is beyond the downtown, but also midtown, New Center, and a little bit, little bit of the waterfront.

And the identification of exactly what you said, that area in the center which has these radial streets, it's like a web, was something that inspired, I, I remember their thinking, and [laughs] I remember Michel drawing a very interesting sketch, if you recall.

Yes, I remember that.

A, a woman's, uh, I think a woman's face with, you know, sort of the upper torso, and then, and then a necklace around her-

Right

... around her neck that was in the shape of the plan.